Life in the terrarium is coming to an end. Charles is alive and swimming around, happily as ever. Esteban is still MIA. The water is too murky to see him anymore. The Elodea and algae plants are still pretty green and the walls of the aquatic portion of the terrarium are covered in condensation.As for the terrestrial life, there is a small amount of condensation along the sides of the terrarium. The three plants continue to look a little wilty- some of the leaves are shriveled. One of the plants is entirely brown. The soil still has some small white particles, which we still think is mold.We have decided to puncture two holes in our terrarium- one in the aqauatic portion and one in the terrestrial part. We are curious to see how this will affect our ecosystem.

The water is about as murky as it was last week. We have no location on Esteban, since the water is too murky to see him. We have sent a search team out to find him. Charles is still alive and swimming around joyfully. The water plants are still green.As for the terrestrial life, the most noticeable difference is that the condensation on the walls of the tank has increased.The bean plants have continued to wilt and lose some of their vibrant green color.

All appears to be well with the world (of the terrarium). It has been two weeks since we have checked on Esteban and Charles, but they are both still alive and well. They appear to be healthy as they swim around happily as ever. The water is still murky and the string connecting the aquatic and terrestrial worlds has completely disintegrated. We are curious to see how this will affect our terrarium.The plants do not look as healthy as they once did. They have begun to wilt and parts of the leaves have fallen on to the soikl.

It has been a shocking week in the terrarium. We have location on a shrimp... AND IT IS ALIVE. We will call him Esteban. Esteban was found swimming upright and low near the gravel. He is still clear and quite small. We have reason to believe Esteban has been buried in the gravel during this time. Charles is still very alive and swimming. Water is still equally murky. The Elodea plant looks like it may be starting to die- it is turning a dark green, color and some edges are beginning to yellow. Part of the string connecting the aquatic and terrestrial worlds has slightly disintegrated into the water... there is a part of the string floating in the water.In the terrestrial world, the beans have changed drastically this week. There is some shedding on the soil and one wall of the terrarium. The bean plants themselves look as though they are beginning to die- the leaves are wilted and they have turned to a less healthy-looking, dark green color. One of the plants, which we believe was the last to sprout/grow, still appears to be healthy.

Not much has changed here in the world of our terrarium. The water appears to be the same color- equally as murky but not getting murkier. Charles is still alive and kicking. It is unclear whether or not the beans have continued to grow, since they hit the top of the terrarium it is hard to tell.

BREAKING: We have location on the snail shell. We had not seen it for a few weeks. The snail itself has still not appeared, giving us reason to believe it is indeed dead.

Welcome to Week 4 with our terrarium. Things seem to be running pretty smoothly around here. The water in the aquatic life remains equally murky. Charles is very much alive and swimming again, which leads us to think he could have been sick last week or confused by the lack of light. Our aquatic plants are very green and appear healthy. The dismembered shrimp bits are MIA. Suspects in this matter include Charles (did he eat them??) and the higher beings of disintegration. As for the terrestrial life, all the plants have grown and are now hitting the roof of the terrarium. The plants have begun to twist around each other- possibly in an attempt to reach the sunlight. Tune in for more details next week.

TERRARIUM STATS:

1,255.6 g... Our terrarium appears to have lost mass. The only thing we can think to hypothesize about the loss of mass is that the shrimp and snail have finally left us and decomposed.

So much has changed in these past 7 days! Most noticeably, the water has become murky and condensation has appeared in both the aquatic and terrestrial ares of the terrarium. This is a good sign, since it shows the water cycle occurring in our system. The beans have fared well in their new home. We have two sprouts. Our North side bean appears the most healthy, having grown about 2 inches above ground. Our southwest bean has just broken ground. There is no sign of the southeast bean. As for the aquatic life, our guppy is alive and kicking, which warrants a name. We have decided on Charles. He appears happy, swimming around a lot. Charles does not seem to have changed much in size. It is unclear whether or not the snail is alive. We have location on the shell, resting on the rocks on the North side of the terrarium. We remain hopeful. Unfortunately, the larger ghost shrimp did not make it. We sense some sort of malicious play, since the shrimp appears to be dismembered. He has become pinkish in color and a leg(?) lies just centimeters from his body. After much searching, the second ghost shrimp was located. Ghost Shrimp II has not changed much in size and remains a transparent color. We believe a reason for his survival to be his expert camouflaging skills beneath the Elodea. On that note, the Elodea and algae plants do not appear to have changed much, aside from losing some of their vivid green color, which may just be due to the murkiness of the water.

Life will never be the same in the terrarium. RIP Ghost Shrimp I.

TERRARIUM DATA

1 kg 265 g

We hypothesize that the terrarium will increase in weight over time. We are hopeful that life will continue to grow, causing an increase in mass.

Everything is fresh and pretty, since we assembled our terrarium today! The bottom half of the terrarium is the aquatic life. Swimming around the clear water inside, we have a ghost shrimp, guppy, and one snail! We also have an Elodea plant (anacharis) and algae. The top half of our terrarium is the terrestrial life, which contains three bean seeds planted in very moist soil. We are hopeful the soil will stay moistened by the string that connects the two worlds.